水戸に生まれ、東京美術学校の第1期生として岡倉天心に学びました。菱田春草とともに、輪郭の線を使わずに色のぼかしで空気や光をあらわす新しい日本画にいどみます。はじめは「朦朧体（もうろうたい）」とからかわれましたが、やがて近代日本画の第一人者になりました。富士山を生涯のテーマとし、数多く描いています。
Taikan was born in Mito and studied with Okakura Tenshin as one of the first students at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. With Hishida Shunsō, he tried a new kind of Japanese painting that showed air and light with soft color, not outlines. At first critics mocked it as mōrōtai, the 'hazy style.' But he became the leading Japanese-style painter of modern times. Mount Fuji was his lifelong subject, and he painted it many times.
